In the conventional art, a resistance-change memory cell using a material whose resistance value is changed by application of a voltage has been proposed. The resistance-change memory cell has two types of operation modes (unipolar type and bipolar type). In the unipolar type operation mode, a voltage value and voltage application time are controlled without switching the polarity of an applied voltage, whereby the memory cell is transited between a high resistance state and a low resistance state. In the bipolar type operation mode, the memory cell is transited between the high resistance state and the low resistance state by switching the polarity of the applied voltage.
In the bipolar type operation mode, when the memory cell is placed in the low resistance state (set state), a set pulse is applied, and when the memory cell is placed in the high resistance state (reset state), a reset pulse having an opposite polarity to the polarity of the set pulse is applied. However, there is a memory cell whose transition to the set state or the reset state is unstable, although the set pulse or the reset pulse is applied thereto.